


Don't Wait Up

by it_was_like_slow_motion



Category: Doctor Who RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-09
Updated: 2013-10-09
Packaged: 2017-12-28 22:49:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/997827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/it_was_like_slow_motion/pseuds/it_was_like_slow_motion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He knew the minute he walked into the room that when he left there would be one less heart beating, one last bright smile to light up the darkening world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Wait Up

He knew the minute he walked into the room that when he left there would be one less heart beating, one last bright smile to light up the darkening world. His own smile faltered a bit, but she still gave him her tired half-smile, the edges of her lips tugging up as her green eyes sparkled with the life that had never quite left them.

“Ello, darling.” He whispered, sitting in the chair at the end of her bed and bending over to kiss her forehead lightly.

“Hello, sweetie.” His heart broke, knowing that would be the last time she would likely ever speak those words. He had been counting down the last times for quite some time, just as he had counted up the firsts when they had fallen in love.

He remembered the first times she had said those words to him off set, really meaning them, and his mouth quirked upwards. There were so many happy memories in those words. Sad ones, too, but so many times she had teased him and they had bumped elbows as she said those words, danced a thousand dances with those words as their background music.

“Why the smile?” She asked.

“I always smile.” He lied. “Well, I always smile when I’m with you.” He amended, making it slightly more truthful.

“You’re just a grumpy old man now, do you know that, Smith?” She grumbled.

“Well you’re just a cranky old woman.” He shot back. She smiled at him and butterflies shot through his stomach. A hundred million smiles later and he still felt like he was the luckiest man in the world, to have her smile directed to him, for him.

“I have an excuse.” She gestured weakly towards her surroundings. “Being terminally ill doesn’t exactly make for optimism.”

“You shush about that.” He reprimanded gently, blinking away a tear that threatened to spill. He brushed her hair back from her forehead and kissed it gently, not wanting to hear the words terminally ill for a long, long time.

“Matthew, we both know I’m going to die today.” She stated bluntly.

“Please don’t say that.” His voice cracked.

“It’s not going to change anything if I say it, Matt.” Her voice was a bit gentler, but he still didn’t like the edge it had.

“It would make me feel an awful lot better if I could go through this speech I wrote for you than talk about your inevitable doom.” He suggested.

“A speech, hmm? Let’s hear it.” She said, looking up at him with interest in her eyes.

“Alexandra Elizabeth Kingston, you have always been the most wonderful part of me.” He thought once he got the first words out, the rest would follow in a stream, but they didn’t. His throat began to close and he forced another breath to come in so more words could flow out. “And I am absolute rubbish at this whole words thing, so I decided that maybe I should steal some song lyrics.” He took another shuttering breath before speaking. “I have walked five hundred miles, and I will walk five hundred more, so I can be the man who walked –” His voice broke again and he couldn’t regain it.

“A thousand miles to fall down at your door.” Alex whispered the ending of the line. Matt nodded, still choking on his own tears.

“Baby I’m not moving on, I’ll love you long after you’re gone…” Alex’s soft murmur took his next words away and all he could do was sit there, clutching her hand like it was the only thing in his world.

“Alexandra?” He asked. She looked up at him, eyes asking him why he was using her full name again. “I love you with everything I have. Everything I am, everything I was, and everything I will be - it was all for you. It was always for you.” He brushed his lips across hers, and put her hand against his chest, where his heartbeat still pulsed strong. “And I will love you long, long after this old thing wears out. And long, long after you’re gone.”

He couldn’t see through his tears, and neither could she, really. It was so much to take in. The sentiment had been there, always, and he had said it so many thousands of times, but the last one felt special. She savored them, their parting words.

“You…I love you to the moon and back. Until the end of time. I should know. We’ve been.” He continued. “And I will love you forever and always.”

“I will wait for you.” She promised weakly.

“I know.” He murmured.

“I know you know.” She replied.

“Alexandra Kingston…Alex…I forgot to tell you that you look absolutely…you look lovely today.”

“Thank you, Matty.” She whispered.

 “See you soon, sweetheart.” He kissed her straight on the lips, pouring his entire soul into their very last kiss.

“Don’t wait up.” She smiled.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He paused. “I love you, Alex.”

“I love you, too, Matt.”

She died with a grin on her face and the ghost of his name written on her lips.


End file.
